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Thursday, December 30, 2010

As all the good thing should come to end. Another good year is coming to end soon.
When I look back, I do think I have tried to cook from fresh ingredients daily which means take-away and restaurant dinning are probably once in a week affair in our home. I simply managed to pack two lunch-boxes daily early in the morning and seeing empty lunch boxes in the evening gave me immense satisfaction also. I have made no New Year resolution so far as I am unable to stick on it whenever I tried to do so. So will take the moments as it comes in the coming new year.

I have posted 70 recipes so far this year. Well also completed my 200 th post and four years of blogging. When so much is happening in this space, thought of having a good-bye post where all the recipes should be listed.
In case you have forgotten to check any recipes, you may do so now.
So, sit back with a cup of coffee or tea and read the post or recipes you have missed. If you find anything worth of trying, do so and let me know how it turn out for you.

Starting from the very first post of the year 2010.

Bandhakopi Palang Kabuli Cholar Ghonto ( Cabbage Spinach and Chick peas Vegetable Medley )
As the new year ushered in , I was struck with back to reality syndrome.And was just wondering to start this new year with a good and authentic Bengali recipe but I was little clueles while writing this post as when it comes to differentiating between a labra, chenchra , chorchori and ghonto , I do think there is a very thin line.I just thought it's better to call it a vegetable medley or in Bengali a typical "Ghonto".....

When it snowed at that time, I just thought something warm and Authentic Bengali cooking would fill our heart with the warmth of our homeland.Made this Bengali way of Chenchra with Hilsa Head.Ilish/hilsa as you all know is synonymous with being a Bengali.Right ?

In my paternal grandparents home mutton keema ghughni was prepared on Dashmi during Durga Puja as a customary. I have fond memories of growing up surrounded by my big joint family and relishing this Keema Ghughni.

A payesh recipe with a non-traditional ingredient cous-cous and that too with palm jaggery.
I couldn’t have thought or preparing something sweet and that too from couscous but this was a very pleasant innovation for me. We thoroughly liked this payesh with palm jaggery.Wish I had some patali Gur to have the authentic touch.

There is a very quick way of making a mach’er jhaal or tel jhaal.In this case pomfret is being deep fried and gravy is made using the left-over oil in the pan itself. Add a bit of green chilly and some garlic or ginger and bit of tomato pieces. A quick and easy fish curry can be set on the dinning table.

Palang shak’er ghonto is one such niramish /vegetarian recipe which is quite staple food in every Bengali home. I guess if you add some spicy fried bodis/wadis to this ghonto, it uplifts the taste and flavor. And in case you want some peek into Oxford, then you probably won’t like to miss this post.

Mushroom with Minced meat
I don’t think, I would have thought of this combination unless I was struck with dilemma regarding preparing a vegetarian dish. I had these mushroom but was not at all willing to prepare a vegetarian recipe. And splash of second it occurred to me to try out keema/minced meat with mushroom.

Tandoori keema kabab
Ok, I knew I was on a keema cooking splurge. But never mind it was Holi/Doul in Bengali and how could not I make something non-vegetarian. This is something you want to make-ahead of your party and reheat it at the time of serving. Excellent way to spice up your cocktail party.

Dal/Lentil stuffed vegetables
What you do with your left-over dals.I do like to use them while kneading my roti dough or I end up using them to stuff my vegetables.Red Bell peppers and zucchini/courgettes are my favourite vegetables for this kind of stuffed vegetables.

Stuffed and Roasted baby Chicken
Baby Chicken is stuffed with the filling made out of left-over wholemeal bread and spring onions.And then an overnight marination with loads of spices.
A perfect Sunday rendezvous with your family members at dinner table. What more you could ask for?

Yogurt cereal Breakfast
A very healthy breakfast with cereals.I end up adding the picture in the blog's header in case you were wondering about it.

Strawberry Bread
Strawberry and that too in a buttery bread.Do you need any more reason to indulge yourself.

Yakhni Rui Mach'er Pulao- fish yakhni Pulao
Now this is what I call a keeper recipe. I have fond memories of my Baba cooking yakhni pulao.I was just trying to capture that vague memory of my father cooking in the kitchen. I came to realize later that my daughter was hanging with me in the kitchen much the same way I used. This recipe is amongst top 10 recipes in spice and curry.

Ice-Cream Cake Roll
This sponge cake roll turn out quite delicious and just was perfect with some more ice-cream.My DH S thought this was quite similar in a way cassata ice-cream which is so fondly eaten back home.

One delicious desert made with mango syrup available here in cans. It saved a whole lot of time and sweat in kitchen. A very quick and easy desert to assemble in case you have some company in the evening.

Indianised version of a Chinese staple with loads of spices.I happened to change my layout, the one that you see now, also from this post onwards.

Buffalo Chicken Wings
We were in then enjoying summer days and this was just a perfect way to use up chicken wings and spice-up our dinner table.

Tangra Mach'er jhaal
A fish curry made with coarse powder churned freshly.Cumin seeds-Nigella seeds-whole black pepper is made into a coarse powder and then added to the simmering fish curry.Amazing flavour with freshly prepared masala.

Pabda Fish Curry
This fish curry is a quick fix meal.A very Bengali way of preparing fish curry with the oil that comes out after frying the fish called as mach'er tel , so the name "Pabda mach'er tel jhaal"..

Lao'er torkari kinto dakhini twist diye..which means a Bengali is trying to incorporate some South-Indian flavour with Sambhar Powder.If that makes some sense..yes and it did taste fantastic.A very vegetarian recipe, goes great with rotis or porota.

Quinoa with Scrambled egg
This was a surprise combination for me.I tried my hand for the first time making something with quinoa..pronounced as "keen-wah"..well I wasn't disappointed at all.

Rui Mach'er do Pyaza
When I prepared this, my inner self was divided in two different opinions. Rui fish is prepared generally in a very traditional Bengali way of making curry. And Do pyaza is if am not wrong is a North-Indian way of making spicy non-vegetarian curry.curry. But it looks like the amalgamation of both the world is even more delicious.

Cute Duck Poris for Kids
My friend K shared this recipe and Pictures here.Thanks K for being a part of our world here.Hope someday we will meet again.

Another way of incorporating some spices in an everyday roti.And we all know benefits of green leaves.

Peshwari naan
These naans are great for any party or even if you are making it just for your family.Peshwari naans are little different as these have some stuffing.Usually the stuffing is made of some dry fruits/coconut etc..

Chicken yakhni Pulao
Another yakhni Pulao.A pulao preparation made with aromatic water or yakhni in Hindi.This has been my way of making chicken pulao for quite bit of time now.This remind me of my Baba's way of making chicken dum pulao in large dekchi for entire joint family.

Dosa and sambhar
Although I have been making dosa for quite a long time.But I always forget to mentio it here.This was long overdue I guess.

Thai Style Chicken Curry
I would call this a little variation from signature Thai recipes as I didn't had some of the ingredients like galangal and kafir lime.But still it came out delicious.We had a nice time eating it with warm cooked rice.

Hyderabadi Lukmi or Keema Shingara
This recipe has become one of the most read post in this blog.This one is really a great discovery for me.We just don't need any reasons for making this.Now where is my cup of tea?

Cauliflower with Huli podi
Kopir Torkari with dakhini twist.I made this cauliflower sabzi wih the sambhar powder that I made previously.And trust me with home-made freah powder everything taste so delicious.A must try for every vegetarian.

Rui Fish with Cabbage
Rui Mach'er matha diye bandhakopir torkari.Well all said and done,a very traditional Bengali home-cooking, if you are interested then sometimes give it a try.Oh! and this post was my 200th post ..finally!!

Steps in making Rotis- a beginners guide
This was a result of a readers request for tips in making rotis.Never realized so much goes into making my daily affair of making rotis.Some great insights into the chemistry of making rotis.

Around The world- Craft Ideas
This post is all about home-made crafts for kids.In case you are wondering how to keep your child engaged with some good works.Then this post has some great links to try out craft ideas.

Alright this one turn out even more flavourful with addition of tangy tomatoes and sweet red bell peppers.

Parota and Aloor torkari and Cherry banana Pancakes
Both these posts reminds us of
Shakalaer Jol-khabar e Bideshi influence.OK, with change in pace of life and migration towards bigger cities from villages.Our eating habits have changed also.This post is a reminder to start all over again the forgotten practices and recipes and specially at Breakfast table.

Murg Shahi Korma
If you think you can resist this awesome recipe, you are wrong.This is a stunner and as I am writing this, it reminds me of the amazing aroma and flavour it has.Splendid recipe.

Ghiya or lauki or lao ke pakode is a famous way of making pakodas in a typical UP aen home.Well, just substituted Lauki with zucchini and I was not disappointed at all.A very flavourful preparation for pakodas on a rainy day.

I tried my hand in making Achaar and rest is history now.There is always some batches of this nimbu ka achaar in our home.With this home-made achaar our meals have become little more interesting, oh! I mean Delicious.

Shorshe Mangetout/snowpeas
This is my take on sheem shorshe.As we get mangetouts plenty here, so thought of subs sheem/hyacinth beans with mangetout would be a decent idea.This saw a keeper recipe also.Made home-made mustard powder which we used regularly in our day-today cooking.

Darbesh
It was Durga Puja and we were thinking of making somthing which should warm up our heart to the festivity.Darbesh as I fondly recall as prepared on may be nabami. So here is my easy and simple take on Darbesh.

Till Ke Gajak-
Gajak as I can recall is a North-Indian sweet snack prepared especially during winters.These turn out quite OK for us.Evening time snack has some great variation now.

Microwable Sandesh
This was during Diwali that I prepared these M/W Sandesh.Things have become far easy now with the inventions of new technologies.

Easy chicken noodle
well it was snowing and to keep ourself warm this easy chicken noodle soup came to our rescue.

Pistachios cookies
What is Christmas without some cookies.Well this is our read me and my daughters joint effort in making these cookies.

Kosha Shorshe Murgi -Chicken in spicy mustard sauce
And special mention about this post.This is a recipe shared here by my loving DH S.You can not resist this recipe and I am still smitten by that taste and flavour.You have to try it out to know what I mean here.

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

It was a pleasure hosting Chalks and Chopstick- Edition 6 here. Thanks to all the participants who have sent their entries. Thanks Aqua for giving me a chance to host this fantastic food-event.

Now, let’s have a look into the few entries that we got here.

Priyanka at Asankhana

Pia does the same as her mother tells her ,she mixes,remixes more flour and water to get firm consistency dough,Elated Pia thanks her mom.Next her mother asks her to collect the utensils for rolling out the parathas,rolling pin,flour to dust ,oil and casserole lined with foil to keep the parathas warm....Read More ..........

And here is another entry ..

He wanted to do something special for her,something which would make this Christmas eve special for her.Since his fathers death his mother was everything for him.His teacher had explained him the recipe,with his small fingers he mixed everything in a bowl ,kneaded soft dough and kept the dough in the fridge to chill.He knew his mother wont be back till evening...What happens next --Read More............

Aqua-- Served with Love

As he put the whisky back into the liquor cabinet, his eyes fell on the bottle of Kahlua. That was it....Kahlua, and not whisky, was perfect for the cake.

Suddenly, he was in the grip of an overpowering urge to bake the cake right away, all by himself. Soon, he was in the kitchen, melting and mixing the ingredients, getting intoxicated by the combined aromas of coffee, chocolate and Kahlua...Read More...........

Jaya at Spice and Curry

In a small kitchen Purbaoun‘s wife, Nirupa was working on her “sheel nora” with some mustard seeds and some green chilies.And occasionally she would start worrying about the continuous heavy showers.She remembered few days back “Purot mashayi” told them that this year Ma Durga is coming on “dolna”/swing and her “gaman” or returning to her home Kailash is on “gaj”/elephant. Usually gaman on Gaj meant prosperity and happiness.She was grinding Mustard seeds on Sheel Nora to make shorsh’er bata for Pabda mach’er shorshe batar Jhaal....Read More ..........

Well the name says it all ---SS blogs Here

She scooped up a warm macaroon and popped it into her mouth. Summer and Winter had imploded.. it was like she had flown South! Dark-vader was close at her heels. But instead of being afraid, Raushni charged straight at her Bully with a mean Coconut Grenade! ..........Read More .........

Thanks all for your participations and lovely stories and a poem.See you all in the next edition of Chalks and Chopsticks.

Thursday, December 23, 2010

School holidays have started here. That makes me little busier these days as I have to keep a restless toddler occupied with something or the other thing. I always look out for simple chores which should excite her to try out and do with less effort. Cooking is a great way to engage a child particularly in these long holidays. Now don’t take me wrong with that, I mean some easy cooking like assembling a Healfy Salad or making Simple Mango Lassi . Or in this case may be trying out a little bit of photography for a change. Below what you see is her first try for food photography.

My DD has this inner curiosity to try out things which she sees her mamma doing regularly. The other day she was trying to make round rotis with some left-over atta/ flour dough and rolling pin. And when things were not going the way she wished them, I mean rotis and that too round, she started to fuss over.
Don’t know why kids have this fascination for being a grown-up. I tell her sometimes “Arey baba, ekto dhirey-dhirey boro ho, amar kaaj eto tara-tari kom korish na” (meaning Grow up slowly) to that she gives me a smiling face, some words understood and some aren’t.

We both started to make these pistachios cookies together; she helped me in shelling the roasted pistachios which I do think is a very tedious chore. And then she helped in folding the dough for cookies also. She was curious and helping me out till then , but when we started to cut out shapes her initial euphoria subsided quickly when she was dropping the cut-out of cookies on kitchen floor but not on baking tray.
And then she told me” Can I watch cartoons now?” This may be her way of telling me mamma I am done with these cookies cutting and baking bussiness.Now let me please do things which I do regularly and with little effort.

Well Kids will be kids. But then we also want it that way. Aren’t we? For a mother her children will be her kids forever even if they become grown-ups having their own children.

To the recipe now

These cookies are improvised version of these Pistachio Lemon Biscotti .I just thought of some minor additions of amount of butter will give the right crunchy texture. Generally I chop pistachios for the biscotti recipe, but this time I crushed them with the rolling pin. That gave a correct mixture of some big chunks and some powdered pistachios as well which further gave a nice nutty flavor to these pistachios cookies. You can easily replace pistachios with walnuts, almonds or cashews for that matter as per your preference. But the only requirement is that nuts should be toasted /roasted well before.

Method
Measure about 1 cup of all purpose flour. Tap it gently and press it with a spoon for correct measurement and then run over a knife over the measuring cup discarding extra flour.
Add in the baking powder. Add in crushed pistachios also.

In a separate bowl, cream together butter and sugar. It would be better if you bring the butter to room temperature. Just take the butter out of the fridge prior of making these cookies.

Now here two types of butter are available –salted butter and unsalted butter. I have no preference for a particular type of butter. But if I am making /baking with salted butter I prefer not to add further salt in my recipes. In India I presume salt is already added to butter so check out while making these cookies or for that matter any cake, cookie or biscotti.

Now add one egg. Again I would repeat, take the egg out of the fridge prior of making these cookies and let it come at least somewhat near to room temperature.

Now slowly start mixing the egg, lemon juice and grated lemon zest to the butter+sugar mixture.

Its time to mix the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients in batches. Slowly start mixing about 3-4 tbs of flour mixture to the butter+sugar mixture.You may need some more flour at this stage to hold up the dough. Add in the extra 2-3 tbs of flour to this dough.

When all the flour is mixed up well, refrigerate the cookie dough for at least 1 hr. This way it would be easy to manage and cut the dough into various shape.

Line up a cookie sheet or baking tray with foil.

Preheat an oven (fan assisted oven) at 165 deg C or 325 deg F.

Divide the dough into four equal parts. While working with one part, refrigerate the other three parts.

Roll out a small circle of about half inch thickness dusting generously with some more flour and cut shapes of your choice with different cookie cutters.

Transfer these to the baking tray and bake for 18-20 mints depending on your oven.
When the sides are turning little golden or just start to show tinge of brown, take them out and cool.

Do the other batches this way. Store in air-tight containers. Stays fresh for 1 week.

Note-

For retaining the crunchy texture and freshness of cookies, store them in layers of grease paper or tissue papers. This way these cookies remain fresh and crunchy even after 1 week.
This helps if you are sending these as Christmas goodies back home or to a friend in other cities.

You can easily replace pistachios with walnuts or almonds or cashews. But make sure nuts are toasted or roasted.

Sunday, December 19, 2010

It snowed heavily here yesterday, and nothing can be comparable when it comes to enjoying snowy weather. We went to a park nearby, all covered or should I say packed up very well and enjoyed throwing snow on each other. Below are some of the snaps we clicked on our small walking journey. Hope you all like as much as we enjoyed clicking them.So, sit back with a cup of tea and enjoy this virtual walking tour.

It is Christmas in the heart which puts Christmas in the air.
---Anonymous

Red and White –Two colors which defines the very nature of being in Christmas mood.

Green and White-Another colors to define Christmas mood.

Now who would have thought of cleaning this much of snow, and then drive?

As many trains, tubes and bus came to a complete halt today, this little make-shift train in children’s park is all decked up with white snow if it could get some passengers. Where are you all?

Anyone out there if you really care to sit in here.

Hello!! My name is Mr. Snowman; hope you have a splendid Christmas and happy New Year.

Frosty and desolate but snow can even glorify a dry tree as well.

If you are a regular reader of this blog, You know when I say - We have been here too . Another Moment captured in our memories forever.

Alright then,
Now to the recipe- very simple chicken noodles soup to keep us warm in this cold weather here.

With this kind of weather a bowl of comforting soup lifts your spirit and energy level also. After a long walk, we were tired and this comforting bowl of soup was just the kind of food we were craving for. There are no special ingredients to make it. This is another ever versatile soup recipe that we like to prepare. Use vegetables as much as you can.

Noodles Chicken Soup

Recipe requirements and method
About 1 egg noodle
Vegetables of your choice
I used 2 carrots
Some3-4 beans
1 medium size potatoes
2 medium size tomatoes
Half an inch of ginger
2 garlic pods
About half a cup of green peas
2 tsp of black pepper
1 tsp of salt
2-3 chicken legs or chicken wings or chicken breast cut into large bite size cubes
Half cup of shredded mozzarella or cheddar cheese Method
If you have pressure cooker. Then it’s as easy as it can be.
Add in about 5-6 cups of water in pressure cooker.
Now add all the chopped vegetables-potato, tomato, beans, carrots.Add in ginger and garlic.
Add in seasonings-salt and black pepper.
Add in chicken legs/pieces.
Lock the pressure cooker and now put the pressure cooker to high flame. Let it whistle once. Now lower the flame and let it simmer with lid for about 8-10 mints. Take off from the flame.
When the pressure subsides, then unlock the pressure cooker lid.
In a separate pan, bring some water to boil. Add little bit of salt and then add 1 cake of egg noodle and cook.
Add in this cooked noodles over the hot chicken soup. Alternately you can cook all over very low flame with a large cooking pot over 30-50 mints or till the chicken are well cooked.
Garnish with mozzarella cheese and enjoy in this cold weather.

Well since it’s festive time, made this Black Forest Cake too. If you wish you can find the recipe Here.

Note-
It has been brought to my notice by one of my readers that they are not receiving the verification e-mail for feed burner e-mail subscription membership. I personally am unable to fix this problem as this is entirely managed or generated by feed burner.
To all those who haven’t received verification e-mail, I do deeply regret it and apologies for this mis-understanding. I do not wish this should have happened. However I can do very little on that as this is managed by feedburner.Is there any other way we can fix this problem, do let me know friends.

Monday, December 13, 2010

Alright, then another week has started and with that countdown to Christmas has also started.Soon another splendid year will be saying adieu to all of us.
All shopping malls and grocery shops are well decked up with huge shinning and glittering green Christmas trees, reindeers and cut outs of huge Santa. Where ever you go now , you hear “Silent night, Holy night” or “All I want this Christmas” or “Santa Baby” or “Santa Claus is coming to town” ..Well my list will go on. Love the warmth of festivity and color.
Last time when it snowed here, they were back to our neighborhood, searching for food. And whenever I see them, I always try to click-click. Imagine if we can decode their code words while conversing with each others. These seagulls would have said something like this...

Now if you have enjoyed their little chit-chat, shall we now move towards recipe of the post.

With Christmas near, thought of using my hibernating oven to good use. Well, made these eggless dates walnut bread. This is an excellent breakfast bread recipe.
I have been thinking to do some eggless baking, but was little skeptical of trying it out. This eggless bread recipe is more of an evolved form of recipe for eggless date’s cake recipe. As the texture it turned out was much of bread than of the cake. So, I just thought it’s better to name it bread than cake .This bread is very sweet and moist.
If you have forgotten to purchase bread from supermarket on Sunday grocery shopping or were lazy enough to go out like me. And then wondering what your folks will eat for breakfast the next morning, don’t panic. Just start preparing it right away. Dates are available here plenty these days.
Soak up some dates in warm milk and make a pulp. This will give the required moistness and volume to the bread.

Method
Warm about 1 cup of milk in a milk pot or M/W for 2 mints at high.
Then wash the dates well. And soak them in warm milk for about 2-3 hrs.It would be better if dates are pitted. Then make a smooth pulp in a food processor.
Now mix in with sugar and oil. And process it well in food processor.
Mix in dry ingredients like –flour, baking soda, baking powder in big mixing bowl.
Slowly start mixing the dates+sugar+oil puree with the dry ingredients.
Fold in toasted walnut pieces.
If you wish you may add some sultanas or raisins also.
Preheat an oven at 180 deg C.
Prepare a loaf tin, and then pour the batter for bread.
Bake for about 40-45 mints at 180 deg C (fan assisted oven) or till a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the loaf.
Enjoy with a cup of coffee or have it with honey or ice-cream or pudding.

This is going to Asankhana for It's Time Jingle again-Christmas event 2010.Visit here for more details- Click Here

Thursday, December 9, 2010

This has been a very cold winter here so far. News papers are boasting it as one in a life time event, perhaps happening here after year 1960.And we are expecting white Christmas this year.
Not the kind of weather I would say I enjoy but then I like to see white snow everywhere. So, all is fair. I clicked these pictures last week when it was snowing here.

Now if you have enjoyed the pictures, then shall we move to the recipe for this post..

I always have a fascination towards Mughlai cuisine. Although, I must admit that I like to indulge once in a while with that much of spices and cream or nuts. But when I do, I make sure I use it generously. This recipe is like many other recipes out there in net. But I was very much making a much improvised version of Julie Sahni’s recipe from her cooking book “Classical Indian Cooking”. Although, I have put the spice content to some higher level.
This is an excellent party menu-recipe when you want to satisfy your vegetarian guest. Richness of the gravy and the flavour of paneer make it a winner, but then Kormas are thought to be like that. I have clicked the pictures in night, so the not so clear image. Initially, I thought I will be clicking with the left-over paneer shahi korma next morning with bright sunny light, but we hadn’t any left-over. It was all gone, even my picky-eater daughter couldn’t resist it with that much of spice.
Here to the recipe

Paneer Shahi korma

serves-3-4 Recipe Requirements
2 -3 medium size onions
4-5 garlic
1 inch ginger
Seasoning
5-6 tsp of grounded coriander
2-3 tsp of grounded red pepper
1 tsp of grounded turmeric
1-2 green chilies slit in between
Salt as per taste
About ¼ cup of cooking oil
1 cup plain yogurt lightly beaten
15-18 almondsMethod
Soak about 15-16 almonds in some lukewarm water. After about 20-30 mints, peel the skin and then transfer to the food processor jar or kitchen grinder whatever you have.
Make a smooth paste in a heavy duty processor with the following ingredients
Blanched almonds, 2-3 onions, about 1 inch ginger and 3-4 fat garlic, 4-5 tsp grounded coriander powder, 2 tsp red pepper powder, turmeric powder, green chilly and some water + some oil.
Heat up a saucepan, add in 4-5 cloves, and add in the above prepared paste. Fry it well for 8-10 mints at medium high flame.
Add in about whisked 1 cup yogurt. TIP-Adding yogurt in batches to the sauce reduces the chances of curdling the sauce; gently fold in yogurt about 2-3 tbs one at a time probably at a very low flame, stirring continuously so that it gets all incorporated to the sauce. Never hurry this step.
Add about 1 and half cup of lukewarm water depending on the gravy you want. If you want thick gravy adding 1 or perhaps ¾ cup of lukewarm water is sufficient.
Cover it and cook it at low for 15-20 mints. Make sure to check in between so that the gravy/sauce doesn’t get stick at the bottom of the pan.
When the sauce has just started to become thick, then add sliced paneer pieces and take it off from the flame.As you add paneer, it has a tendency to soak up the gravy. So it’s better to keep some gravy otherwise at the time of serving, the gravy will dry up.If you wish you may add cream or butter at the time of serving.
Serve with warm cooked rice or naans.Enjoy!!

Calling Your AttentionPlease do not forget to send your lovely stories about food fiction to Chalks and Chopsticks-6 .Click on the right sidebar at the top for further details or visit this old page-Click Here .You can now use the logo also.

I need your support to make this event a success.Deadline has been extended to 20 th of Dec 2010.

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Today was one very cold, wintery day and yesterday it even slightly snowed here. I like to sit and see through my glass window with a cup of coffee and a good book if possible ,these pretty white snow flakes slowly flowing with zephyr and finally hitting to the ground.Nature has beauty in every move it takes.I was little skeptical of going out in this cold, but this fellow was all smiling at me.

And yeah I was rightly motivated to go out attending all daily obligations that life has offered me.If he can, so can I !!

What could have been a boring grey day for me, turn out to be a pleasant, dazzling day. I was asking myself the entire day do I need reasons to cook or not to cook. You know the tussle between my Good and my Bad. Well, a feeble voice inside me echoed to go ahead and make the most out of the day. So, here are some of the pictures I clicked while it was slightly snowing out here yesterday.And as I am writing this in night, it's snowing outside today also.Hope to see some more snow tomorrow morning when we wake up.

Snow showers just starting to come down.

Speeding up with the wind

and flowing with gutsy.

Finally, ending their long journey as water droplets on my balcony glass shield.

Love the pattern here.

My day began, packing two lunch boxes in the early morning hour, which probably was not what I had planned the previous night, keeping in mind the snow shower weather forecast earlier. And you all know we Bengalis are like that, we are always at extremes. So, when it’s winter we shiver merely seeing snow on TV. Correct me if I am wrong. It was like one busy morning for me. Although, I prefer to plan things ahead when I pack two lunch boxes at one go. Those of you who have school going children and office going husband, probably can identify with my dilemma or rather complex situation here. Imagine the daily dramas in the early morning, you seem don’t seem to like it. Yeah you are not alone my friend.
One thing that I rather have started taking seriously is checking weather forecast after we moved here. Now, those of you who have spent half of your life or growing up years in India or are probably born in 80’s.If you can relate to those old DD days. And if you remember, how news readers would read aloud some stereotypical lines about weather forecast at the end of each session. Remember the good old INSAT-1B Satellite , and it’s not so reliable forecast!!
Things have become savvy these days with so many private news channels and many more new satellites for fool-proof weather predictions.So, there has been a prediction of a very cold winter season this year here. Let's see if we can see some snowy white clad trees, houses and roads this year too.

But this post is not about weather reporting or discussing my family. Well this post is about a recipe which is simple but yet very healthy.

It’s been quite a long time that I have saved this home-made granola recipe in my draft. But couldn’t find an appropriate time to post. And I must say this has been a great discovery for me. Now, I don’t see a reason why I need to get boxed cereals from supermarkets.
If you are like me, a fan of doing things from scratch then, I would say to give it a try once. And if you think oats are healthy, of course they are healthy. Then you have good reasons to make it.

Ingredients
3 cups of rolled oats
¾ cup of flour
Your choice of any nuts
I prefer using some almonds+walnuts- approx 1 cup
1 tsp of salt
½ cup of vegetable oil
½ cup of honey
½ cup of water
1/4 cup of sugar or as you prefer

Method
Preheat oven at 150 deg C or 300 deg F
In a mixing bowl beat honey, oil and water.
Crush almonds and walnuts with rolling pin over a cuting board.It should make approx 1-1 ½ cup of nuts.
Now prepare the dry mixture.
Before you go further let me write that this recipe originally have called for old-fashioned or rolled oats which is groats that are steamed and rolled out.
But I have used super fast or quick oats for this recipe,dont get confused with quick Quaker oats which is not what I have used.Super fast or quick oats are instant oats which are partially cooked and then they are rolled in.So, they need to be rehydrated.And we can consider more this to be oatmeal.
Old fashioned oats will tend to be more chewy and more likely to retain the goodness of oats.Choose what works best for you.
now to further steps
Mix oats, nuts, flour and salt.TIP-If you wish you may add any other seeds also like-sunflower seeds.
Now mix gently the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients.Mix well .
Now spread this mixture evenly in two baking trays.I would say line up a foil or grease paper.Trust me it reduces the amount of work you will be doing at the washing sink.
Line up two shelf in the oven.Line the rack on second and last shelf.
Place one baking tray on the upper rack and other on the lower rack.
Bake for 15-20 mints .Then take out and stir it well.
Now shift the trays so that the upper rack tray goes down and the lowers rack tray comes on top.Bake again for 12-15 mints stirring in between.Keep an eye on it and check if they turn out barely golden.Take them out immediately.

Let it cool off before you keep them in air tight containers.This batch of home-made cereals remained fresh for one week and it was sufficient for our morning breakfast.
Have it with cold milk or warm milk what ever way you prefer.

If you have time then I would suggest baking it even at low temp of 135 deg but then increase the time for baking. This way they turn out even crunchier.
And if you wish you may just top it over your favorite ice-cream also. Yum!!